Alfred Reed (1921-2005) was born in New York City. He studied composition at the Juilliard School with Vittorio Giannini after a tour in the US Air Force during World War II. He was later a staff arranger for NBC in the 1950s and a professor of music at the University of Miami from 1966 to 1993. He is remembered today as a distinguished educator, conductor, and composer. His impact was the greatest in the wind band world, where he left behind more than 100 frequently performed works. He was particularly popular in Japan, where he developed a close relationship with the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, and where many of his works are required literature for all bands.
Alfred Reed biography at C. L. Barnhouse music publishing.
Armenian Dances (Part II) was written in 1975 as a continuation of Armenian Dances (Part I). Like its predecessor, Part II uses material originally collected and written by the legendary figure of Armenian classical music, Komitas. Reed elaborates in the score’s program note:
The Armenian Dances, Parts I and II, constitute a four-movement Suite for Concert Band or Wind Ensemble based on authentic Armenian folk songs from the collected works of Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935) [commonly referred to as Komitas], the founder of Armenian classical music.
Part II, containing the second, third, and fourth movements of this Suite, is built upon three Armenian folk songs, freely treated and developed in terms of the modern, integrated concert band or wind ensemble. While the composer has kept his treatment of the melodies within the general limits imposed on the music by its very nature, he has not hesitated to expand the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic possibilities in keeping with the demands of a symphonic-instrumental, as opposed to an individual vocal or choral approach to its performance. Nevertheless, it is hoped that the overall effect of the music will be found to remain true in spirit to the work of this brilliant composer-musicologist, who almost single-handedly preserved and gave to the world a treasure trove of beautiful folk music that to this day has not yet become as widely known in the Western world as it so richly deserves. Hopefully, this new instrumental setting will prove to be at least a small step in this direction.
Part II of Armenian Dances was completed in the Winter of 1975, and was first performed by Dr. Harry Begian and the University of Illinois Symphonic Band on April 4, 1976, in Urbana, Illinois, on which occasion the entire Suite was played for the first time.
Here is Part II in a full performance:
The score also contains the following historical note by Dr. Violet Vagramian (links and videos added by me):
Gomidas Vartabed (1869-1935), the founder of Armenian classical music, is credited with collecting well over four thousand Armenian folk songs. Born Soghomon Soghomonian in Keotahya, a small town in Anatolia, Turkey, he would later be given the name Gomidas. His exceptional lyric voice led the Prelate of the region to select the orphan Soghomon at the age of eleven to study at the Kevorkian Seminary in Etchmiadzin, Armenia. He was ordained an Apegha (monk) in 1895, at which time he assumed the name Gomidas, after the Armenian architect-musician Catholicos Gomidas. His desire for further musical training led him first to studies with Magar Yekmalian in Tiflis [Tbilisi], Georgia, and from 1896 to 1899 to Berlin, where he studied at the Richard Schmidt Conservatory, as well as Frederic Wilhelm University, under eminent musicians of the time. In 1899 he graduated from both the conservatory and the university, receiving his Ph.D. in musicology; his dissertation topic was Kurdish music.
Gomidas was a founding member of the International Music Society (1899-1914), for which he read important papers on Armenian neumatic notation and the structure of Armenian sacred melodies and folk melodies. At the age of forty-six, at the apex of his career, Gomidas was exiled, together with other Armenian intellectuals, by the Turks in April 1915, at which time the genocide of one and a half million Armenianstook place. He was released within a short time, but the suffering and atrocities he had witnessed resulted in a complete mental and physical breakdown from which he never recovered. He died in Paris in 1935. His legacy to the Armenian people and to the world’s ethnic music is invaluable, and his major contribution lies in his preserving so many centuries-old melodies from obscurity or oblivion.
The three movements comprising Part II of the Armenian Dances are built upon three Armenian folk songs which were first notated, purified, researched and later arranged by Gomidas for solo voice with piano accompaniment, or unaccompanied chorus. In order of their appearance they are: “Hov Arek” (Come, Breeze); “Khoomar” (Armenian female name); and “Lorva Horovel” (Plow song from the district of Lori).
“Hov Arek” is a lyrical song in which a young man implores the mountains to send a breeze to rid him of his woes. It is a deeply moving song in which the delicate melodic line encompasses a wide range of expression.
“Khoomar” was arranged as a soprano solo with mixed chorus by Gomidas. In this energetic, light-hearted dance song, a joyous Armenian village scene is depicted in which two young people meet and marry. This song is characterized by its vital rhythmic patterns.
“Lorva Horovel” has a complex improvisational melody which was extensively researched by Gomidas. In its rich rhythmic and melodic structure, it reveals elements dating back to Pre-Christian times. The song is connected with the farmer and his physical and spiritual being during his work. It is the immediate result of his labor, with his pleas to the oxen and his exclamations while plowing. These expressions resound throughout the free flowing melody, rhythmic and intervallic structure of this beautiful song.
Read more about Armenian Dances (Part II) at Barnhouse, Rundel, Wikipedia, and J. W. Pepper.